Tuning up half step

I have a concert Fluke. Does it hurt it to tune up a half step?

Other than no being to play along with people or mp3s or videos is there downside to doing this? It does seem to sustain better and sound brighter, both of which I like.

I don't really notice any greater difficulty fretting.

Tuning up as much as a full step is not a danger to the ukulele unless you are using high-tension strings (Worth CH, for example). Even then it's probably not a problem for a well-made uke but I wouldn't go there with a valuable vintage one.

D-tuning (a full step up from GCEA) was once the "standard" tuning for soprano ukuleles and is still very common in some places. I have two Mainland sopranos - the mahogany has hard strings (Worth CH) and is tuned GCEA, the mango is currently strung with Ko'Olau golds and tuned ADF#B. I've found that most ukes seem to intonate better up the neck with higher tension (plus, as a long-time guitar player, I prefer my strings to fight me a little).

Many uke/string combinations that don't sound great at C sound better when tuned up, others sound better tuned down, you just have to experiment.

John

CharlieDog said:

I have a concert Fluke. Does it hurt it to tune up a half step?

Click to expand...

Looking at the Flea Market website you can see that all soprano and concert Fleas and Flukes could be tuned GCEA or ADF#B, the tenors could use GCEA or DGBE.
So no worries from a technical point of view.